Wafaa El-Sadr

Executive Vice President, Columbia Global; Global Director, ICAP at Columbia University; University Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine; Mathilde Krim-amfAR Chair of Global Health 

Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, MPA is Executive Vice President of Columbia Global, the Dr. Mathilde Krim-amfAR Chair of Global Health at Columbia University, Founder and Director of global health center ICAP at Columbia University, and University Professor in Epidemiology and Medicine. Her vision for Columbia Global is to establish a strategic platform to promote and facilitate engagement of the University’s faculty, researchers, students, and alumni with the world to enhance understanding, contribute to addressing global challenges, and advance knowledge and its exchange. Under her leadership, Columbia Global aligns some of the University’s key global initiatives, including Columbia World Projects, the Columbia Global Centers, the Committee on Global Thought, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination. 

An expert in global health and infectious diseases with longstanding experience in supporting major health challenges around the world, Dr. El-Sadr has focused her career on advancing public health knowledge and putting that knowledge into action, establishing collaborative partnerships around the world to strengthen health systems, and engaging with communities to meet health threats and improve health outcomes. She has led large-scale, innovative projects that have had decisive impacts on such pressing global health challenges as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, antimicrobial resistance, emerging pathogens, and non-communicable diseases.

Dr. El-Sadr received her medical degree at Cairo University in Egypt, a master’s in public health from Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and a master’s in public administration from Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. She has had a distinguished research career with more than 500 publications to date in peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. El-Sadr is a MacArthur fellowship recipient as well as a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Council for Foreign Relations, the African Academy of Sciences, and the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health.